Frozen, a full-length stage work told in two acts, expands upon and deepens the tale's indelible plot and themes through new songs and story material from the film's creators; in fact, this new stage production features more than twice as much music as the film.
5 comments:
I am not surprised that Disney's Frozen musical played it safe. When I first heard that they were adapting the (surprisingly) engaging movie into a musical, I was skeptical. So much of my experience of the movie had to do with the spectacle. The ginormous mountains, the endless spires of ice, and the immersive environment combine to create the story we love so much. Plus, the sisters' story was so intriguing because of the spectacle of Elsa's powers. It is impossible to portray that story without that spectacle. I cannot see a viable way to transfer all of that spectacle and movie magic to the stage without some major concessions. It seems like they did take those concessions. So I'm not surprised that critics were less than wowed by the production. Though I don't think this production really counts as a success, I don't think anybody is really going to suffer from this less than stellar production. Disney has enough money that financing this show is probably just a drop in the bucket for them, they still make a profit, riding off fans of the movie and the hype of a Disney musical, and the creative team can say that they did Frozen the musical.
I have a interesting relation with the Frozen movie. As I have said many times before, i use to work for mickey’s cousin company Feld entertainment. And they specialize in touring adapted Disney story lines from the best Disney movies. Toward the end of my time there Frozen came out and was widely spread to almost all of the shows that Feld produces. I saw great success in the shorter versions performed on actual Ice floors. At the time I was mostly working on “stage shows” with in the company and always hoped they would bring frozen to that setting so I could experience it. But because of the dream to bing the show to broadway, that was net passible. So I had high hopes that the show would do well. Its really unfortunate that its not getting good review on its first opening weekend. It sounds like they took the scrips form the movie and out it on stage. I still think think this show well do well for a while, but at this rate it wont last more than 3 years.
The reviews online for the recently-opened Frozen on Broadway confirmed my guesses for how this show would turn out. However from what I saw from pictures and videos of the show, the design aspects looked incredible-- the detail in both the costumes and set to make it true to the movie yet just original enough to allow for some additional creativity were amazing. I wasn’t a huge fan of the animated movie in the first place, and although Tangled and Moana are far superior animated movies I figured Frozen could lend itself to some pretty impressive design and technological challenges if it were ever created into a full musical. Yet from what the reviews said, the show seemed “stale” and the plot that so closely follows the movie actually undermines the whole message of the movie in the first place, which is to be unique and be yourself. Turning Frozen into a musical on broadway seems so predictable and transparently pecuniary to me, and I wish broadway would take more risks in putting something of slightly more importance and perhaps political relevance onstage.
As with everyone else in this thread, I did not find the reviews surprising. This is the danger, I think, with adapting highly popular phenomena so quickly after the original story was released. The adapter must appease those who love the original and cannot exert large amounts of creative license. I think many of the reviews make a good point in saying that the movie was a cultural phenomenon because it was new and different from most of its previous counterparts. To be successful, this Broadway version also needed to be new and different, not just a shadow imitation of the movie. Adapted works need to be made into their own piece of art and shouldn’t strive to be anything else. This is Frozen the Musical, not Frozen the movie so the musical did not need to imitate the movie so much. I think people will go to the show because its frozen and I think that kids will love it but I don’t think this musical will the same longevity as others, like Lion King.
To reinforce and echo what I am seeing written in the above comments, along with what I read in the review article, none of the feedback that the Frozen musical got after opening on Broadway this past week surprises me whatsoever. This production seems to have been put on in its entirety for financial gain and some reprisal of a fandom for the original Frozen movie, and has very little to do with putting something new or artistic on a commercial level stage. I am sure that, even though as Lily pointed out, many of the design aspects (particularly to me in scenic and lighting) are impressive and loom large in opposition to other new works that we have seen throughout the past season, there is nothing particularly heartening about seeing Frozen live and on Broadway. Though, I am sure that there will be plenty of young kids who are able to see their first theatre production because of this show, and hopefully that will bring some good out of a relatively dull production.
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